Cookie Notice

1. What this notice covers

This notice covers cookies and similar technologies — including browser local storage and session storage — used on the Approved Tradesman website. It sits alongside our Privacy Notice, which explains how we handle personal data more generally.

2. Strictly necessary and functional storage

These are needed for the platform to work, or they remember a choice you made. They are set on our own site and are not used to track you across other websites, and they are not covered by the consent banner.

• Sign-in session (browser local storage, set by our authentication provider): keeps you signed in and lets you return to your account. Strictly necessary.
• Onboarding draft progress (browser local storage): saves an in-progress business set-up on your device so you do not lose work if you close the tab. Strictly necessary for that feature.
• Cookie choices (browser local storage): remember your measurement and advertising answers, when each was given and which version of this notice you saw, so you are not asked again. Advertising conversions already reported from this browser are also remembered here so the same one is never sent twice. Strictly necessary.
• Search preferences (browser local storage): remembers how you like results displayed, such as result density. Functional.
• Search position and map settings (browser session storage): remembers your place in a results list and whether service-area shading is switched on, for the current browsing session only. Functional.
• Interface preference cookie (first-party cookie used by one collapsible interface panel): remembers whether that panel is open. Functional.

3. Measurement cookies you can accept or reject

We use Google Analytics to understand how many people visit, which pages are used and how people move through the site. It helps us improve the platform. It is not essential, so we ask first.

Google Analytics is only loaded after you press Accept. If you reject, or if you have not answered yet, the Google Analytics script is not loaded at all and no analytics cookies are set in your browser.

Where analytics is running, Google sets cookies in the _ga family which typically last up to two years, and Google acts as a processor for the measurement data. We do not use it to identify you personally, and we do not use it for advertising.

4. Our own anonymous page counts

Separately from Google Analytics, our servers record a minimal, anonymous count of page views so we can see how the platform is used without relying on a third party. This does not set a cookie in your browser, does not follow you across websites and is not used to build a profile of you.

5. Advertising and cross-site tracking

With your separate opt-in to advertising cookies, we use the Meta Pixel, provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Facebook and Instagram). It lets us measure whether our adverts on Meta lead to visits to our public pages, to business owners starting or completing a claim of their business, and to a first paid membership, and to show those adverts to people more likely to find them useful.

If you opt in, Meta's script is loaded and Meta sets cookies (_fbp, and _fbc when you arrive from a Meta advert) that typically last up to three months. Meta receives the public page address, the page you came from, your IP address and browser details, and the events above. For a first paid membership we send the amount and currency only. We do not send your name, email, phone number or any other contact details, and we switch off Meta's automatic event collection and advanced matching. Meta acts as an independent controller for how it uses that data, under its own privacy policy.

The pixel never runs on private pages: sign-in, claim and confirmation links, payment links, business management pages, staff pages, or any page address carrying search terms, one-time codes or a business reference. Claim and membership events are only sent from a public page or your main owner dashboard (whose address holds no business details), after your own records confirm them, and only for things that happened after you opted in.

If you have not opted in, or you reject, Meta's script is not loaded and nothing is sent to Meta. If you withdraw later, tracking stops straight away, anything waiting to be sent is dropped, and we remove the Meta cookies where your browser allows.

6. Third-party services that load content

Some features call external services when you use them, which means your browser or our servers contact that provider:

• Mapping and location lookup: loaded when you open a map view or ask to use your current location. The provider receives the request needed to serve map tiles or resolve a place, under its own terms.
• Payments: when you pay, our payment provider loads its secure card form and sets the storage it needs to process the payment and prevent fraud. Strictly necessary for that transaction.
• Platform hosting and backend services: needed to serve pages, sign you in and store your data.

7. How to control cookies and storage

Use the choice panel at the top of this page to give or withdraw measurement and advertising cookies at any time, separately. Withdrawing stops any further measurement or advertising tracking in that browser immediately.

You can also clear or block cookies and site data in your browser settings, and you can use private browsing. Blocking or clearing storage for this site will sign you out and may clear an unfinished onboarding draft held on your device.

8. Changes to this notice

We will update this notice whenever we add, remove or change a cookie or similar technology, and before any new non-essential technology is introduced.